A young woman suffering from cancer, who complained about her health problems and poor quality of medical services in her hometown in a video message to Putin, was transported to Moscow

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Darya Starikova from the town of Apatity, Murmansk Region, has been transported to Moscow today for treatment in Moscow’s Herzen Oncology Research Institute following her address to the president during his annual question and answer session (Direct Line with Vladimir Putin), Russia’s Health Ministry reported today.

"A special aircraft from the Russian Emergencies Ministry landed in Moscow, carrying Apatity resident, Darya Starikova, on board for treatment in Moscow’s Herzen Oncology Research Institute following her address to the president during the annual Q&A session," the ministry reported.

The ministry also stated that "the aircraft has all equipment necessary to provide any help during the flight." The patient was accompanied with a medical crew from the Protection (Zashchita) national emergency medical center and the Emergency Ministry’s Tsentrospas state central airmobile rescue team.

Starikova became widely-known after her call on the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin on June 15. She asked the head of state to solve the problems of access to medical services and a severe lack of specialized physicians in the town of Apatity, which has the population of 55,000 people. Starikova said that she had been diagnosed late with stage-four cancer, whereas before that she had been misdiagnosed and treated for osteochondrosis. The precise diagnosis was made in Murmansk. Starikova was taken to a Kirovsk hospital on Friday, June 16, after she suffered complication and hemorrhaging.